Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1887-10-08
TALMAGE.
A Straight up and Down Religion is
What Is Wanted.

one of his old sermons in the Taber-
nacle in Brooklyn Sunday. The big
auditorium was crowded, and the au-
dience listened to the eloquentpreach-
er as though spellbound.
What the world wants." he said,
sis a straight up and down religion"
Much Of the so-called piety of the
day bends this way and that, to suit
the times.
"The whole tendency Of the times
is to make us act by the standard of
what Others do. If they play cards,
we play cards; if they dance, we
dance; If they read certain styles of
books, we read them. We throw
over the walls of our character the
tangled plumb line Of other lives,
and reject the infallible test which
Amos saw. The question for me
should not be what you think Is right,
but what God thinks is right. This
perpetual reference to the behavior of
others, as though it decided anything
but human fallibility, is a mistake as
wide as the world. There are 10000
plumb lines In use, but only one is
true and exact, and that is the line of
Gods eteranal right. There is a NIGH
ty attempt being made to reconstruct
and Ak up the Ten Commandments.
To many they seem too rigid. The
Tower of Pisa leans over about thir-
teen feet from the perpendicular, and
people go thousands of miles to see
its graceful inclination, and by extra
braces and various architectural con-
trivances it is kept leaning from CEN
fury to century. Why not have the
ten granite blocks of Sinai seta little
aslant?
Why not have the pillar Of truth a
leaning tower? Why is not an elipse
as good as a square? Why is not an
oblique as good as straight up and
down? My friends, we must have a
standard ; shall it be Gods or mans?
1.-THE divine plumb line needs to
be thrown over all merchandise.
Thousands of years ago Solomon dis
covered the tendency of buyers to
depreciate goods. So utterly askew
is society in this matter that you sell
dom find a seller asking the price
that he expects to get. He puts onsa
higher value than he proposes to re-
ceive, knowing that he will have to
drop.
"Nothing would make times as
good and the earning of a livelihood
20 easy as the universal adoption OF
the law of right. Suspicion strikes
through all bargain making. Men
who sell know not whether they will
ever get the money. Purchasers
know not whether the goods shipped
will be according to the sample. And
what with the large number Of clerks
who are making false entries and
then Ascending to Canada, and the
explosion of firms that fail for mil.
lions of dollars, honest men are al
their wits end, to make a living.
He who stands up amid all the pres
sure and does right is accomplishing
something toward the establishment
of a high commercial prosperity. ]
have deep sympathy for the laboring
classes who toll with hand and foot,
But we must not forget the business
men who, without any complaint Oh
hammered professors through the
street, are enduring q stress of cir
cumstances terrific.
"The fortunate people of today are
those who are receiving daily wages
or regular salaries. And very much
to be pitied are those who conduct
business while prices are falling, ant
yet try to pay their clerks and EN-
ployees, and are in such fearful strait.
that they would quit business tomor
row if it were not for the wreck anC
ruin of others. When people
tell me at what a ruinously
low price they purchased al
article it gives me more dismay
than satisfaction. / know 1t means
the bankruptcy and defalcation Of
men in many departments. The mer
who toll with the brain need full al
much sympathy as those who tot
with the hand. All business life is
struck through with suspicion, ant
panics are only the result of want O
confidence.
"The pressure to do wrong is al
the stronger from the fact that in oul
day the large business houses are
swallowing up the smaller, the
whales dining on blue fish and min.
nows. The large houses underseI